Tuesday, February 28, 2017

When we think of mandatory – or forced – overtime, our minds
might go back to the day before labor unions, when people in factories were
steadily working hour after hour, day after day, in unsafe and unpleasant
conditions. But mandatory overtime is not a thing of the past for some nurses
in Canada. It’s a reality.

No one argues that units must be staffed – there must be a
certain number of nurses to maintain a safe level of patient care. But what
happens when there is no staff to cover the next shift?

At first, supervisors usually ask for volunteers who would
like to work overtime. But what does the hospital do when no nurse steps
forward? If they can’t call for outside help (private agencies), their only
option may be to pressure nurses into working another shift or, to bluntly tell
nurses that they must stay. This is mandatory overtime, although they may not
use those words.

While the administrators are solving their staffing
problems, they are causing a whole host of problems for their nurses who need
or want to go home – they may have daycare issues, classes to attend, senior
relatives to care for, important appointments to keep, or they may need to get
some much needed sleep.

If nurses refuse to work overtime, they may be threatened with
“abandoning their patients.” However, according to the Canadian Federation of
Nurses in their position
statement on mandatory overtime, this is not true. The union says, ”It is
important [to know] that refusing duty to care is not [to be] confused with
client abandonment, which occurs when a nurse leaves before the end of a
scheduled shift, or being unavailable during a scheduled shift for a period of
time that compromises patient/resident/client care.” So, by saying that you
can’t/won’t work an extra shift, you cannot be told you are abandoning your
patients. But that is on paper. Our conscience may say otherwise.

Research has shown that tired workers make more mistakes.
Tired workers have more accidents going home. They are unhappier overall, and
their health may suffer over the long-term. In fact, a 2015 review study,
published in the Lancet, looked at people who
consistently worked more than the usual 40-hour workweek. The researchers found
several studies that concluded that these workers are at a higher risk of
stroke.

This problem must be addressed, particularly as patients who
are in the hospital are sicker than they ever were before. They need more eyes
on them, more procedures done with them, and more split second decisions made.
Their nurses must be on the ball and refreshed, not tired and frustrated
because they are at work against their will.

The union’s position paper goes on to say, “With the
exception of disaster situations, or emergency circumstances (where the Code of
Ethics outlines the duty to provide care), nurses unions feel that there are no
circumstances whereby employers should mandate employees to work overtime.
Mismanagement of human resources and chronic unfilled vacancies do not
constitute emergency conditions or grounds for ordering mandatory overtime.
Additionally, the right to refuse duty to care may also be applied during an
emergency situation when ability to provide safe care is compromised by
unreasonable expectations, lack of resources or ongoing threats to personal
well-being.”

In other words, your failure to plan ahead of time doesn’t
constitute an emergency on my part.

What do you think hospitals should do if there is no one
available when a nurse’s shift is over?

6 comments:

Thanks for this post! It's so hard to say no, especially when you know that your coworkers might have to take on a higher patient load, which could affect both the nurses and the patients alike. It's one of those things that rubs on the conscience, even when you know you need a day away.

This is a symptom of under staffing. Also, maybe nursing needs to like the teaching profession which has a group of fill in staff under contract who are called to fill i for absent workers. I have a friend who is physiotherapist in a hospital and she is part of fill in staff. She picks up shifts when its busy or physios go on vacation, are ill etc.. This would also provide work for those who do not want to be on a regular full time contract or for retirees who want to get a little bit of work and extra $ now and then .

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